Vulnerable
by Pachow
Summary: [AU] When Ty Lee gets into trouble, the bad type of trouble no girl wants to get in, her perfect world falls apart. All she has left is a list of possible fathers to be, Mai, a baby who she refuses to believe exists, and. . . . . Sokka? [Tylokka. Zutara.]


**A/N: I know I haven't updated my Maiko story recently and have no business starting a new one, but I just couldn't get this plot bunny out of my head. Besides, I have been itching to write some Tylokka and Zutara (Sorry Maiko fans. They were will be a bit of Maiko too though.) for a long time now. Anyway, review please because reviews are loooove and make me very happy. Thanks!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own the characters. Own the plot and all that jazz. **

- - - - - - - - - - -

Ty Lee had never been good at tests.

She was the type of person who was never good at things that involved sitting still, for that matter, and tests and preparing for tests obviously involved sitting still. She normally did not care whether she failed or not, as long she had her gymnastics, her friends, and her social status she was fine.

But this test was one that she really did not want to fail.

"You done yet, Ty Lee?" her friend Mai called from behind the door of the bathroom stall, her voice full of boredom. She sighed, leaning against the door. Normally, Ty Lee would mutter an apology for making her good friend wait. But, today was certainly not normal. On normal days, immediately after waking up she did not run to the bathroom and kneel before the porcelain gods. On normal days, her gymnastics leotards fit perfectly. On normal days. . . . well, she did not have a sinking feeling something was wrong.

Pulling a long strand of hair away from her face, she looked down at the white plastic stick with hopeful, gray eyes. Chewing on her bottom lip, she prayed it would give her an answer that would not effect her life at all and everything would go back to normal. Maybe she just had the stomach flu. Maybe her mother had put her gymnastics leotards in the dryer for too long or something so they shrunk. Maybe her assumptions were wrong.

After staring at that awful piece of plastic for what felt like forever, Ty Lee finally spoke. "Mai, what does positive mean?".

She heard the older girl gasp. Was that a good sign, she wondered as she waited for her friend's answer. Moments passed of hushed silence which was rather unnerving for the pink clad girl. In her world, silence was never a good thing.

"Ty," she winced as Mai used her childhood nickname, "That means pregnant. Positively pregnant.".

And, at that very moment, Ty Lee's perfect, normal world crashed down around her and all she was left with was this stupid piece of plastic and a baby. Her baby.

- - - - - - - - - - -

"I hate my life."

Katara raised an eyebrow as her big brother moaned those very words for possibly the eighty fifth time that lunch period. She let out an annoyed sigh before returning to poking at the meat loaf was sitting on her cafeteria tray, trying to decide whether it was a good idea to eat it or not.

"Oh, really?" she asked, smiling as he began banging his head against the cool metal surface of their lunch table. "Yeah, really!" he yelled as he raised his head, his forehead covered in red marks. As the sixteen year old looked at Sokka, she could not help but realize how sick he looked that morning and how large the dark circles under his eyes were. She frowned. _Probably was out all night at one of those parties again_, she thought, rolling her eyes.

"You look pretty horrible. Gram-Gram is going to be so angry when she finds out you have been out partying again," she stated before returning to poking her meat loaf and reading a magazine on women in martial arts that sat on the table near her tray. He glared at her in response before resting his head on the table and closing his eyes.

He opened his eyes long enough to glare at her. "Screw you," he muttered before closing his eyes once more. Sokka struggled to tune out the hum and buzz of the large cafeteria in an attempt to catch up on his sleep.

Katara rolled her eyes once more, muttered about what a creten her brother was, and returned to reading her magazine. She was used to eating lunches like this with Sokka. He was not a great source of conversation when he was hung over which happened to be a common occurrence nowadays.

"Hey Katara! Sokka!" Aang, the freshmen who had befriended Katara during the martial arts classes that they attended together, yelled before throwing his lunch tray down onto the table with a load clanging noise. Sokka let out a moan of pain in reply and muttered, "Do you have to be so damn loud?".

Aang's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "What's wrong with Sokka? He seems more grumpy then usual," he asked the girl who was seated next to him. "Hung over. Again," she replied, rolling her eyes and turning slightly so she could face the boy as he spoke.

"Again? This is the third day in a row."

He sighed and began to eat his meat loaf with such vigor that one would think that he had run a marathon.

Katara nodded, her expression full of disapproval as she looked down at Sokka who now was massaging his temples in an attempt to make his pounding headache go away. It seemed such a long time ago that Sokka was not always horribly hung over during at least two lunch periods a week and did not spend most of the day sleeping and complaining. Or since he actually seemed to enjoy spending time with her. She always wondered why they had grown apart so.

Gram-Gram said that it was simply because of growing up and girls but Katara knew that more than girls and hormones could have destroyed the bond between her and her brother. But, a _certain_ people who had beer, parties, fun, and let him forget about certain _incidents_ probably could; three things his friendship with his sister obviously couldn't give him.

Suddenly the cafeteria fell silent. The student body collectively looked over their shoulders. Katara sighed but looked toward the entrance of the cafeteria anyway.

Azula Ozai, self proclaimed queen of the student body, walked in, flanked on either side with her ladies in waiting, Ty Lee and Mai. Like usual, Azula was wearing that horrible smile on her perfectly rouged lips as she surveyed the cafeteria.

"Girls, let's sit here," she stated, gesturing to a nearby table which was near the cafeteria line. The people who were sitting at the table immediately jumped up as she glared at them, pointedly. Katara scowled. She hated how much control a spiteful bitch like Azula had over the student body.

Mai and Ty Lee quickly followed their leader, Mai wearing a slight smile of amusement on her thin lips while Ty Lee was wearing that fixed smile on her lips and laughing about something, though her eyes seemed to be clouded with something else. Katara did not think much of it though.

_Probably something stupid like she realized her underwear doesn't match or she is wearing the wrong shade of eye shadow, _she thought bitterly. Though Azula might be the bitch and Mai might be the annoyingly sulky, bitter one, she hated Ty Lee the most. She was always flirting with Sokka, even when he had been dating Suki. She was the one who was getting him into bad things, the Water Tribe girl had decided long ago.

If Ty Lee had never talked to Sokka, he and Suki would have probably been still going out now and Sokka wouldn't be hung over almost every lunch period and he would still enjoy spending time with his little sister and everything would be normal.

Everything would be perfect.

- - - - - - - - - - -

"Ty, are you okay?" Mai muttered, her voice soft. She waited until Azula had left to go chat with her outcast brother, Zuko, to bring it up. She knew that as soon as their leader found out about Ty Lee's little problem, everything would be ruined. The poor girl would be shunned. She wouldn't be able to sit with them at lunch. Azula would spread horrible rumors about her. Life would be hell.

Ty Lee forced a smile. "I'm fine, of course! Why wouldn't I be fine?" she said, struggling to maintain her usual bubbly tone of voice. She began to eat her noodles, as if to prove that she really was fine. Mai sighed in response.

"You can't pretend this didn't happen," she stated plainly before casting a glance in Zuko and Azula's direction. He was smiling as he spoke to his little sister. Mai felt her usually cold insides melt as she looked at him smile.

The normally happier girl shivered under her friend's questioning gaze. How much better she liked in when Mai found almost everything she babbled about boring and would simply nod or mutter a 'yeah' or 'uh huh', in response.

Mai pressed on after a couple moments of uncomfortable silence. "You at least should figure out what you are going to do with it. You going to keep it? Get rid of it? Do you even know who the father is?". She spoke so calmly of it, as if she was simply speaking of an item of clothing.

Ty Lee shuddered slightly. She felt the urge to throw up coming upon her. Her fake smile fell and she felt tears in her eyes. She had tried her best all day not to think about what she was going to do with it. All day, she had been trying to convince herself that there wasn't going to be an 'it' and the test was just wrong.

"I don't know. Maybe the test is wrong. It can be wrong, can't it? It's probably wrong. Everything is probably fine and I am worrying for nothing," she said, her voice still high and bubbly and that fake smile on her lips.

Mai sighed once more in annoyance. Ty Lee was being too difficult for her likening and whenever things became too difficult, she tended to drop them. But, Ty Lee was her best friend after all and she felt responsible since she was the one who broke the terrible news to her friend.

"I don't think so. They are usually pretty accurate," she said, matter-of-factly, before taking a sip of the tea that was sitting on her tray. She had always been the practical who got down to the bottom of things while Ty Lee seemed to dance around with her head in the clouds. She rolled her eyes even though she was truly, truly worried for her friend deep down.

Mai stood up stiffly and walked over to her and sat next to her. A moment of awkward silence she wrapped her arms around her childhood friend and gave her a hug. "It will all turn out okay," she muttered, the words feeling odd, almost like a lie, in her mouth. She had never been the positive one, the one who spouted encouraging, optimistic phrases all the time.

Ty Lee relaxed in her friend's embrace and sat there for a while, not speaking. Not even hugging Mai back. After a while, the normally bored girl released her grip and sat through another few minutes of awkward silence. That was, until Azula sat back down at their table, an unsettling smile on her lips. Immediately, the two other girls snapped into their regular dispositions. The acrobat was smiling, giggling, and babbling on and on while Mai simply sat there, rolled her eyes, muttered a few sarcastic comments, and nodded.

Things were back to normal. Or, at least they were for the moment.

- - - - - - - - - - -

It was a common occurrence for Ty Lee to be bored during class. But, today, she did not really want to be bored in class and let her mind wander. She sighed and began doodling in the margins of her paper, trying her best to think optimistic thoughts.

_Maybe the pregnancy test was wrong. That has happened before. There is no need to worry about it. I am just stressed out and am putting on a little weight. Plus, I could be getting the stomach bug that is going through school. Everything is alright. Everything is alright._

She forced another smile, filling her mind with optimistic thoughts. She continued doodling, humming a jaunty tune under her breath as she did so. But, as much as she tried to push such thoughts out of her mind, her conversation with Mai kept playing over and over again.

_'You at least should figure out what you are going to do with it. You going to keep it? Get rid of it? Do you even know who the father is?'_

She shuddered, trying to distract herself. She continued doodling, her pictures that of stars, moons, butterflies, and the like, but somehow, all of these things reminded her of babies. She sighed.

_'Do you even know who the father is?'_

That was it! Maybe if she could find out who the 'father' was, he could simply tell her that it was all a big mistake, that they had never had sex, that they had just fallen asleep, or something innocent like that and everything would be fine. She smiled to herself and began making a list.

_'-Haru. _

_-Hahn. _

_-Jet.'_

She chewed on her pen for a moment, racking her brain for other names. Suddenly, she remembered a drunken exchange between her and another boy. He was a rather attractive one, with beautiful blue eyes and perfect tan skin. Her forehead wrinkled with concentration, she struggled to remember his name. It started with an 'S'. . . . or was it a 'T'. . . . could it have been a 'K'?

"Hakoda Sokka! At least try to stay awake during class!"

The shrill voice of the teacher filled the room, making most of the class jump. A blue eyed, tan boy grunted, blinked repeatedly, and shook his head. "Huh?" he muttered, rubbing his eyes and raising his head from his desk. The grey eyed girl giggled, as did the rest of the class, though the teacher was not so amused.

"Honestly, Sokka, I have no idea what I am going to do with you," the teacher muttered, shaking her head, before turning back to the board.

It was then that it finally hit her! The name of the boy! She gasped happily and quickly wrote it down under the others.

_'-Sokka!'. _


End file.
